"We're running the ball real well," said Manning, Mississippi's starting quarterback. "We're really physical up front. I guess teams, especially last week, tried to concentrate on stopping the pass, so we started running the ball really well on them, thinking they'd make adjustments to stop the run. They never did, so we just kept running the ball."

The key beneficiary of the plan has been senior running back Robert Williams, a slashing runner with 100 and 107 yards in the first two starts of his career. His performance helped save face for Manning, the heralded quarterback prodigy from New Orleans. Manning is a less-than-great 31-for-61 passing for 366 yards with one interception and four touchdowns.

Credit timing issues for his being a little off to start the season. In last week's 38-16 win against Memphis, he completed just 14 of 30 passes for 174 yards. Williams, thankfully, took the pressure off.

"I feel like the passing game is a little slow right now, but when one is slacking a little bit the other has to pick it up," said Williams, whose team faces Tech at 2:30 p.m. today. "I feel like that's what the running backs are doing. But I think the passing game is going to get corrected real fast. That's an important part of our game."

If it's not the most important part of Mississippi's offense, it's easily the most celebrated. Manning, the brother of Peyton and son of Archie, is playing for Peyton's ex-coach at Tennessee at his father's alma mater. Ole Miss head coach David Cutcliffe coached Peyton with the Volunteers before Peyton moved on to the NFL's Indianapolis Colts.

He now coaches Eli, the youngest of the Manning clan behind middle brother Peyton and Cooper, the eldest son. Following in his father's footsteps, Cooper played with Ole Miss in 1992 but ended his career because of a congenital narrowing of the spinal canal. He now works in the financial business in New Orleans.

Archie, the former NFL quarterback, likely will be on hand to watch Eli today in Lubbock.

"His expectations last year were phenomenal before he'd ever taken a snap," Cutcliffe said. "I don't think he's responding to pressure outside of himself. We all are susceptible to trying to be best the we can be, whatever that is. I think the game is still fun to him and it should be. You've just got to keep playing and find your groove. That's all you can do."

Eli admits that the toughest part of being a Manning is "people expecting things from you that really aren't fair just because of your name."

He lived up to it, though, as a first-year starter in 2001. He finished sixth in the nation in touchdown passes with 31. He completed 259 of 408 passes for a 7-4 team.

"Just because Peyton did something, I'm supposed to the same thing," Eli Manning said. "But I really think I'm starting to make a name for myself. You ignore those things. You live your life in your own way. You try to do the best you can do, and everything will work out fine."

So far, thanks in large part to the running game, everything has turned out fine for Manning during his junior season. He still usually talks to Peyton on the phone for 15 to 20 minutes every Thursday. He also gained 15 pounds to reach 215 during the winter and summer.

The extra weight, Peyton's support and a strong running attack all are likely to help him finish the season much stronger than he's started it.

"We haven't been as crisp in the passing game as we would like to be so far," Manning said. "There's definitely things we need to improve on."